Wheel spoke



May 5, 1925. 1,536,417

J. BOLICK WHEEL sPoKE Filed sept. 1'?, 192s ly/if Jg/wzezzz l vgmlenloz,

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Patented May 5, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

WHEEL SPOKE.

Application filed September 17, 1923.`

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JEROME Bomen, a citizen of the United States,residing at Conover, in the county of Catawba and State of NorthCarolina, have invented a new and useful Wheel Spoke, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to wheel construction and has for its object theprovision of novel spoke construction whereby the rim and hub of a wheelmay be securely connected by means of the spokes, yet permit a limitedamount of relative movement between the rim and hub without impairing`the strength of the wheel.

Another object is the provision ot a novel form of resilient spokeconstruction.,

lVith these and other objects in view, which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention resides in the combination andarrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that slight changes may bemade in the structure within the scope of what is claimed withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention or sacriiicing any of theadvantages thereof.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a view in elevation of a portion of a wheel constructed inaccordance with the invention: Figure 2 is a sectional view taken online 2-2 of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a sectional View taken on line 3 3of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawings by characters of reference the numeral 10designates a portion of hub construction illustrated and described in myco-pending application Serial No. 560,645 filed May 13, 1922.

The portion 11 of the hub 10 is provided with sockets 12 including anouter portion 13 having tapered side walls and an inner portion 14having parallel side walls, the diameter of the inner portion being thesame as the diameter of the tapered portion at its least diametricaldimension.

It is to be understood that the spoke construction herein disclosed maybe used with any form of rim, in the present instance it having beenshown as applied to a demount able rim structure which includes a felloe15 having a depending flange 16. Clips 17 Serial No. 663,211.

are secured tothe flange 16 by means of bolts 18 and clamp the rim 19 tothe felloe 15.l

Socket members 20 are secured by means of rivets 21 or the like to thefelloe 15. The said members are each provided with a socket 22 which issimilar to the socket 12, having a tapered portion 23 and a cylindricalportion 24:.

Connecting the rim portion 15 and the hub 10 are spokes 25, eachcomprising end portions 26 shaped to fit the sockets 12 and 22 and anintermediate portion 27, the intermediate portion being formed to lendresiliency to the wheel. The part 27 is flattened and extendedthroughout the greater portion of the length of the spoke and mergesinto the tapered portion at the ends thereof.

The spokes are located in the wheel with the greatest dimension of theflattened portion arranged transversely of the wheel so that lateralstrains are provided against, the thin portion of the spoke permitting alimited amount of flexure in a direction at right angles to the axis ofthe wheel, thus rendering the wheel resilient. In providing the socketswith a straight bored portion and the ends of the spokes with a portionto tit the same, any tendency of the spokes to become loosea due toelongation of the distance between the rim and hub at the top of thewheel as the same rotates under a load will be prevented by the straightbored portion. This straight portion of the spoke permits limitedlongitudinal movement without becoming loosefas is the case with thetapered portion at the. top of the wheel. At the bottom of the wheel thetapered portion of the spoke supports the load.

I-Iaving thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

A wheel spoke comprising an intermediate flattened portion. cylindricalend portions and a tapered portion connecting the flat tened portionwith each cylindrical portion.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto aiiixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JERGME BOLICK.

Witnesses:

I; E. SIMPSON, AGNES RoonnLLI.

